Samsung introduces smaller, faster memory

Samsung announced a new memory chip for smartphones and tablets on Thursday, promising higher speeds and lower power consumption.

The 64GB eMMC delivers read speeds of up to 260MB/s and write speeds of up to 50MB/s. This makes the new chip about ten times faster than Class-10 external memory cards. It also explains why microSD is going the way of the Dodo. The new 10nm chip measures 11.5mm by 13mm, making it 20 percent smaller than last generation units.

However, it’s worth noting that 64GB smartphones are few and far between. Apple leads the way with 64GB units, but Samsung and HTC have also joined the 64GB club recently.

However, most vendors are not as generous, hence there are plenty of mid-range and even high-end handsets with just 8GB or 16GB of storage.

Although microSD is still quite popular with content addicted consumers, the sheer speed of built-in memory will render it obsolete quite soon. There is not much point in getting a fast high-end phone and bottlenecking it with slow storage.